Afterward
What goes up comes down. Umm.. we decorate for Christmas. Decorated. No one came to visit. The whole thing was just for us. Kids? We acted like big kids. We played Christmas music. We danced around. We had big smiles. We opened and put up (most) of our decorations. Ha ha. We are exuberant. We have bins and bins….
This year the new stuff was “carolers” that Colleen had admired but we had not bought because $$. We found a bargain. Always! You wait long enough… We don’t have that long, but…
And a few more Santas. Santa? Yeah, we started collecting Santas. Yes, we are overrun. And besides, who’s it for?
Us! I am unashamed to admit that I like Christmas and the cheer surrounding it. It makes me smile. Coleen smiles. When she smiles all is right with the world. Good enough for me!
And, don’t forget the gnomes, please.
Download
I am old enough to remember developing film. I developed my own film in my own makeshift darkroom. No drug store for me. Usually it was long enough that I did not recall what or when the first frame/picture was taken. Ha ha!
Nowadays, I download images from my memory cards from four cameras. I am not daily nor even weekly sometimes. I just get around to the task and download to five redundant external hard drives. Yeah! I bet you don’t. mistakes happen 100% of the time. yes, capitalization?! I missed two days and forgot to download the memory card of those two days. I picked up the error eventually. I cringe at all the inaccuracy. I’m doing the best I can.
Christmas, New Year’s, it was not a long time between downloads…. A lot happened. Gnomes, carolers, groups, weather, oh my! Boring? Excitement? Day to day journalism.
Who’s it for? Me? Legacy? Family? Compulsive? Ha ha. I am justly detail oriented and keep a record. I do not trust that things last but am hoping this legacy will prove helpful to the grandchildren and beyond.
Got Santa?
You start with getting one… for the tree top… whatever. They grow on us. Collecting? Collection? Suddenly… we looked… we laughed. Everywhere! As usual a simple idea got out of hand. Exuberant enthusiasm. No brakes!
It’s just Christmas. Nope! We collected more Santas, more carolers, more…. It would appear we are making up for lost time. We might have, could have, maybe shoulda… been together fifty years. Nope, we are just, ha ha, I am indulgent of Colleen’s whims. Oh boy! There are limits. We are not getting a Porsche.
Yes!! Oddly! Happy Valentine’s Day! True love!
So long ago
…way back in 2018. Merry Christmas to all!
Jules was pregnant and ready to have my first grandchild on my side of the family. Oh boy! A California Christmas. It was no white Christmas but it was unforgettable. Surfing. Fireworks. Christmas lights.
Santa makes the season unmistakable. It’s a lifetime ago. Jules has two kids. Things have changed so much in so many ways. I made an ornament. Colleen’s suggestion and idea brought to fruition. Now we gotta find more wood blocks for the grandkids. It’s been a nice few years since this one.
All the best to you and yours on this holiday.
Long ago
In my past life, things were different in terms of holiday groupings. I have family. I have a different family now. I suppose there will be a family legacy passed on to others with good wishes and love. Groupings change. Nothing is absolutely known about the future in the present. Looking back retrospectively there is bittersweet memory. I miss family who are no longer with us. I am grateful for the time we were together. I am happy for the future in which I am living. Change is part of us. My secretary used to say that I would always say, “Something always happens.” Aptly, nothing stays the same. With lemons, be prepared to make lemonade. Bittersweet is the operative word here.
Group hug
We did it! We did! We managed to have Christmas in five locations! We are the seniors. They are supposed to come to us? Ha! We were in fours states. I believe we achieved a state of grace. (How about, altered state?) It was work. It was fun. Our parents were bystanders. We are not! Bring it on! We did.
We have an extended family. We managed to catch up with multiple family groupings this holiday. It’s been nutty. Covid and whatnot has conspired to make it hard. In a mere moment plans changed. I was so punchy I did not know where or to whom half the presents were destined. At every stop I was inaccurate. I had packed for groups that broke up and met as different parts in different places. Confused? You bet! We were sleeping in one spot and cooking in another. At least I got a haircut and changed shirts. There were a lot of moving parts. Fun? We all had a good time. We must have had fun for me to still be writing about it a month later. All that I can attest, looking back, it was easier to herd cats!!
Epilogue: Omicron is among us. We did not escape unscathed. Members of the extended family pictured herein caught it and were tested positive. So far, all are fine. Those shots really work. Or, we are just plain lucky. My (neurosurgery) department motto was always, “Better to be lucky, than good.”
PPS: All is well. We were, indeed, lucky!
Perfect
The quest for the perfect gift is serendipitous at best. You would never guess and can never quite guess what will be a hit. Certainly, capturing the moment of surprise and joy is just as fraught. Sometimes a moment passes too quickly to capture. And, sometimes, you catch the moment perfectly. Certainly, the joy is apparent. It makes me smile as I edit. Have you seen the new plant based food? There is something disingenuous in making fake meat. Either you eat meat or you give it up for … broccoli. You simply can’t have it both ways. ??? So, fake bacon? It was enough to make me an instant vegetarian! The moment? Everyone had their phones out. I reached for my camera/flash. One shot. That was it. One chance. Perfect.
Christmas, umm….
Well, I hesitate to say, “Hell.’ It seems oddly incongruous to use the term in the same sentence with Christmas. Christmas hell? We are on the last leg of extended Christmas. We have been to Speonk, Elkins, Hurricane, and West Chester (not, in that order). Don’t ask. We did not make it to the Rocky Mountains. No mailboxes were illustrated in this post. (It was too humiliating.) Let’s start with dinner. Jane was late to the restaurant. She and Lee had hit a mailbox in the dark. Hit?! She ran over two (count ‘em!!) posts and crushed the mailboxes. Crushed!! And, her car would not start. She killed the (car) battery too. A very neat trick! Look under the tree. See, a couple Xmas stockings? No?! Yeah, missing. We never did find them. (Number?) Two?! Next, Jane’s toilet overflowed, and, kept, overflowing, as in, it just kept filling…up!! Up!! Help!!! The trash basket beside the toilet has holes in the bottom. What the…?!@#?$!! Yeah, yeah, needless to say I had taken my socks off but was still standing in ankle deep water. Don’t laugh… too hard. We lost stuff too. It went missing, or, who knows? We travel with a hot water bottle. Low tech, but, it saves the day in some houses we stay. The item (victim) other is a Sherlock game. Ha ha. Some of the cards went missing from the game. Sherlock!? Jane simply lost (a deck) of the game. Did she ever? (have/play with a full deck?). Oh my!!!… some days you just can’t make this sh*t up. Yes it was the Xmas from …. Note: no mailboxes were permanently maimed in the making of this post. Crushed, yes. Did I mention Lee overflowed the toilet – blocked the drain all the way out to the street…. ? The toilet filled because Colleen’s shower upstairs was filling the bowl. Oh! Yeah??
It changes in an instant: Plan B
Minute by minute, plans change. ??? The Christmas virus! Who had it? Who got it? Covid! Omcron! Damn! Jess’s household had a run of the Christmas flu. It was a family secret, not so secret. We knew but ignored it until… we could not. Not going, going, ah!!! Christmas plans dashed. We got Part I; but Part II???!!! Oh my! There were tears! Crocodile tears!! Unhappy wife. 😦 By the end of the day we had a new plan; after several more revisions. There is a Plan B. Who knows? Will we make it? We’re gonna try. The windows in the house were done (secret!) with Jolly Ranchers. (Lisa was so proud of her ingenuity.) I have never seen nor eaten one (jolly rancher). And, I am signed up to do a lot of driving. I feel like Santa on his delivery. Hey! We are (delivering)! By the end of this post – happy wife – happy marriage. Pfewf!
NKA
Lives out of backpack, gathers no moss, do I, admire or regret? If you carry all your belongings in a backpack, you are exactly opposite to Colleen and myself. We are happily overloaded with clutter. What to say? It’s easy to shop presents. Get nothing that won’t fit into an already full backpack. Dave’s already Noa’s favorite uncle. I was gonna say, ‘only uncle’ but, that ain’t true. Prodigal son? Not strictly. But he sure has a lifestyle only a few can imagine. I worry, all the while wishing him the best. From my vantage, we all put aside worry, this day.
Mixed blessing
I had the dubious fortune of visiting my old ornaments. Separated but not entirely lost in the divorce, they are remembrances. Jules and I reminisced over their (she and David’s) favorites. There was a horn; every year they vied to place this on the tree. They took turns; year by year they remembered who had put the horn on the year before. Colleen and I have a tree. Ours has a mix of old and new (memories). She brought ornaments from WV. We bought ornaments. New memories and new traditions are now part of me. Old and new, it’s something that makes you think hard at this time of the year.
Circle Game
It’s a completely foreign sight to see your grown children reading to theirs.
…We can’t return, we can only look
Behind, from where we came
And go round and round and round, in the circle game… – Joni Mitchell
Mice or mouse? Twas’ the Night Before Christmas – “…not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse…” The concept of mice or mouse, or, are they their names, plural vs singular, ah, that is the question?? Did it matter? Every night I read to “my” kids, and, Jules would stop me right here, without fail! “Which is the mouse? Which is the mice?” Without fail, we would pause. I gave my explanation. Jules expressed her doubt and confusion. We could never quite communicate our thought. It persists even now. Mice or mouse? It tugs at my heart to see my kids all grown up. A new dress? – universally beloved by little girls.
We got out alive
Xmas with the “ex.” It’s not that bad. Lisa likes Colleen better (than she likes me). No, this is the Part I story of Christmas, a game the whole family can play! It goes like this: Each Christmas someone goes down with some calamity. The most frequent is illness. The Christmas flu!! Yup, we got it in one of the homes this year. So, all plans changed in an hour. There were many tears and regrets. Covid is amongst us. But, this was the plain ole Christmas flu. Therefore, all parts subsequent to Part I changed. We will still get to all destinations – WV, OH, and so on. It will just happen in a different order and at different times. Ha ha! We made it past Part I. Everyone lived. No presents! No more!! Jules admonished sternly! Too much! I am guilty. Yes, I am! But, it ain’t a present if it’s not wrapped. (It says right here in the rules!!) Christmas cookies! A new holiday tradition? Nope! … an old one being passed down a generation. The best of all? Dave arrived home. Jules says it is the first time we have all been together since the wedding (hers).
Gnome for the holidays
Gnomes were all the rage this year. We got some. Carol sent hand knit free trade ornaments. “They” got their own little tree. Yes, spinners have their own special wreaths. Air plants – here’s a new take for Xmas. Santas? Our mantle is full. Carolers? Colleen admired them. They are $$$. I like a bargain. We found these at an estate sale for $. Ok! Then, I/we could not find them. Nope!! I looked high and low, but, not behind the milk! Nope! I was even wondering if I left them in the estate and forgot to take them home. ??? of course!! Colleen found them while she was looking for something else. (not behind the milk!!) … we have a missing yoga mat… not any little mat, it’s a 6×8 foot mat. How does a mat that size go missing??
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